A Development
by VociferousVic
Summary: This is basically about Sheldon's progression with compassion. I would appreciate reviews, because it ultimately determines whether or not I write more! I apologize for it being so short, but more will come. Hopefully.
1. Chapter 1

"Sheldon." Penny called from the kitchen in the Cooper- Hofstadter residence. "Sheldon!"

Sheldon was unresponsive. He sat in 'his spot' of the couch in what seemed to be a trance. He sat upright and looked like he was watching the television, but it was turned off.

"Oh it's all right; he's just trying to turn the TV on with his mind." Leonard stated calmly as he emerged from the bathroom.

"Blast you, Leonard! You've torn my concentration." Sheldon exploded as Leonard finished his explanation. "Wait, what were you doing in the restroom for so long? This isn't your time to evacuate your bowels. You evacuate your bowels at eight-thirty in the morning, not seven at night."

"My apologies, Sheldon, but my colon wasn't going to wait." Leonard grinned enthusiastically as if he'd just beat Sheldon in three-dimensional chess.

Sheldon had started to squint his eyes and raise his fingers halfway to his temples when Leonard interrupted his action.

"You're not going to blow my head up Sheldon. You couldn't even turn on the TV." He snickered a bit and grabbed Penny by the waist and whispered into her ear. "But later tonight it will."

Penny giggled and playfully slapped his bicep, "Oh my gosh! Stop it!" she giggled some more and continued her task in the kitchen, as Leonard tapped her bottom and walked to the living room.

Sheldon cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out what he may have said to her by deciphering her actions. After a few seconds of pondering he straightened up his chest and cleared his throat, "Penny? Did Leonard whisper sexual innuendo into your ear?" he questioned.

"Sweetie, don't worry about it." She smiled gleefully and turned back around.

"But Penny, you don't understand. I must know. Not knowing or not worry about something is not what I have a Doctorate in."

She sighed, "Leonard?" her eyes became pleading, as if she really didn't want to tell him. She knew he was a virgin, and she was afraid that even talking about sex would deflower him.

Leonard rolled his eyes and looked directly into Sheldon's. "Seriously, Sheldon?"

"Oh, Leonard, does it look like I'm not serious? Because I can assure you I'm not joking in any way, shape or form. If joking could morph, that is." Sheldon stated matter-of-factly while staring intently at Leonard. He'd learned that to prove one is not joking, they must look directly into the eyes of whomever they were speaking to.

"Yes, Sheldon. I spoke of sex." Leonard sighed, lowered his head, removed his glasses and rubbed his temples.

"Ooh! I know this one! Exasperated sigh, lowering of the head, removal of your glasses and the massaging of your temples… You're annoyed!" Sheldon rapidly spoke, as he was extremely excited to have finally identified one form of body language.

"Oh, psht, no way!" Leonard whacked his hand in the air.

"Damn. I'd sworn I had that right." Sheldon ripped his fist to his hip.

While Sheldon was in mid-sentence, Leonard decided he would, again, grab a piece of paper and pen and write "sarcasm" on it. He lifted up the sign as soon as Sheldon finished his sentence.

"Ohhhh. Oh, well that makes perfect sense as sarcasm! I could never be wrong!" Sheldon exclaimed as he grinned ear to ear. "Oh, ah, Penny? You were attempting to disturb me earlier and I wish to know what it was concerning."

"Oh yeah, I was going to ask if you wanted green peppers on your personal pizza, but you didn't say anything so I decided not to put them on." Penny shrugged.

Sheldon's eyes widened, as if he were about to be hit by an eighteen-wheeler Peterbuilt. "E-excuse me?" He'd been so wrapped up in his experiment to turn the television on with his mind and what Leonard had said to Penny, he was completely oblivious as to what she was doing in the kitchen! "Penny! We've never made personal pizzas, ever. I don't know what makes you think we are going to have them tonight! It's not Thursday, Penny! It's Friday! Every Friday we get Chinese food! Even if it were Thursday, we wouldn't be eating personal pizzas; we would be eating pizza from Giacomo's!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Sheldon, you need to learn how to try new things." Penny sighed, not wanting to argue with him.

"B-but Penny. My bowels will not be kind to me! I've developed my schedule because I do not want to end up having a bowel movement in a strange place. I simply won't have it." Sheldon whimpered.

"Now Sheldon, Penny's right! You've made progress with Anything-Can-Happen-Thursday! Why can't you take a leap of faith and move it to today?" Leonard began to smile, hoping it would encourage his friend.

Sheldon began to toss his head around, thinking of other ways to get out of this mess. He thought he could leave and walk to Giamico's, but that would have him eating an hour later which would in turn force him to move his bowels another hour later. He couldn't get out of this mess and there was nothing he could do. He didn't like it. Not one single bit.

"Oh, fine. We'll eat those blasted pizzas." He threw his arms in the air in frustration. "May I ask Amy Farrah Fowler if she would like to attend dinner?"

Penny smiled at the strange robotic man and said, "Of course you can, sweetie." while she placed the pan in the oven.

Sheldon had sent her a text and in about fifteen minutes, give or take, Amy was knocking at the apartment door.

"Why, hello, Amy!" Sheldon opened the door and greeted her.

"You know, Sheldon, normal couples sometimes greet each other with a kiss." Penny winked and turned to Leonard as he also winked at Sheldon.

"Don't be absurd, Penny. Kisses are for in the spur of a moment or planned. Neither of which is happening at this moment." Amy stated matter-of-factly while walking into the apartment as Sheldon closed the door behind her with a smug grin on his face.

"I couldn't agree more, Miss Fowler." Sheldon chuckled a bit and sat down in his spot on the couch.

"Well, they aren't really a normal couple. If that's even what you want to call it." Leonard said to Penny while he shrugged.

Sheldon seemed to have it all figured out in Amy's eyes. They way he looked at her, interacted with her, and spoke with her was special. They seemed to be on the same wavelength, always completing the other's sentence and having only the other understand what he or she was saying, and he could tolerate her for longer than a few hours. He preferred silence, as he trusts it to have a magical feeling; but all the same, those were moments he only shared with her. In both Sheldon and Amy's mind, their relationship was perfect. Though, Amy does seem to want more of a physical relationship, Sheldon doesn't seem to mind as long as she proposes before she acts.

"I brought another two hundred cards I'd made up last night of Counterfactuals, Sheldon. Perhaps you would like to join us as beta testers, Leonard slash Penny!" Amy smiled from ear to ear, thinking about what fun they were about to have.

"Oh, yeah right. I've tried that game and it's bogus! Only you two understand the rules and the meaning behind it all!" Leonard scoffed as he walked over towards Penny.

"Well, it might be fun!" Penny exclaimed. "I mean, how bad could it be?" She skipped over to the empty armchair in the living room and sat on the arm. "Give me your best shot Ames." Her eyes widened as she smiled.

"All right, let's see here… Aha! Here's one you may understand fully!" Amy shouted and held up one card. "If in the year 5834 a man created a time machine out of a cardboard box to go back in time and snatch up a dinosaur of his choosing, what would the last element created be named?"

Sheldon grinned, he knew this one.

"Uh… Ah… Um, well… Phoo- AH! Um, it would be called stegosaurus…ium…?" Penny shut one eye, hoping her answer would at least be accepted.

"Oh good Lord, Penny! It would be called Tardisian." Sheldon shouted at his now whimpering neighbor.

"Correct, Sheldon. I don't believe you even need to defend that one!" Amy giggled as Sheldon slapped his knee and chuckled alongside her.

Penny leaned over to Leonard's ear and whispered, "You were right, they're some whack-a-doodles. Perhaps that's their species name!" she laughed a bit at her amusing joke.

"Homo… wack-a-doodles? Yeah, because that doesn't sound offensive at all." Leonard laughed along with her, but was pleased that she had used "species" in the correct context.

"All right people, let's eat!" Penny shouted when she finally heard the oven ding.

Sheldon looked down at his food. He was so disappointed. Perhaps he should have stated he was man-struating, and that he was having a craving for Giamico's. He sighed out loud. A disappointing food, for a disappointing night. The crust wasn't baked properly. It made him cringe as he bit into it, so he decided he must pretend he must have eaten it, but without actually doing so. He quickly got up and rushed to the restroom with his plate. He'd hoped they'd believe he was having 'tummy troubles' so he scraped the remaining amount of food into the toilet and flushed. He waltzed out of the bathroom with a smile on his face, almost stating, "I'm proud of what I just did." Amy, Penny, and Leonard looked at him with disgust.

"What the hell? You ran in there with a full plate of food and you come out with an empty one. Sheldon, what did you do?" Leonard looked at him, almost with embarrassment.

"Oh, well, uh, you see," His eye started to twitch. "I decided to finish my meal on the John." Sheldon controlled his twitching and puffed his chest up.

He didn't want to hurt Penny's feelings; he didn't want her to give up cooking because of his lack of interest towards her food. She's going to need that skill as a wife someday, and she'll be marrying Leonard which can only mean she'll soon be cooking for the both of them. She needs as much practice as she can get!


	3. Chapter 3

Everyone stared at Sheldon, looked at each other, and burst into fits of laughter. Penny's louder than the rest.

"Oh, Sheldon, sweetie, if you didn't like my food you could have just said so. You didn't have to make up such an obvious lie!" Penny managed to say without going into hysterics again.

Sheldon was utterly baffled. He straightened up a bit, a stance he normally takes when thinking, and began to wonder why. He knew if he'd said something about her cooking without flushing it, she'd have given him a dirty look and sulk for the rest of the evening.

"Penny, surely you're mistaken. You'd have definitely scolded me for criticizing your cooking. The "social code," if you will, states one must not give criticisms to those who do not ask for them.

"Aw, sweetie, you don't have to do that to me. We're friends! I can take anything you throw at me! I probably won't understand it anyway." Penny perked up and smiled at her friend.

"I see… Well, in that case I suggest waiting for the oven to beep, alerting that it's now heating at the desired degree, before inserting the consumable products."

"See, no harm done! I'll finally figure out what he said before I go to sleep toni-"

"Oh, and you mustn't heat it for so long. The bread becomes brick-like."

"Oh, well, allri-"

"And when you sprinkle the cheese on, don't just plop it on the bread. I know you came from Nebraska, but here in this apartment we don't prepare our food as heathens would."

"Shel-"

"And don't use that disgraceful substance they call sauce. Ragu. Use genuine Italian sauce from an organic store. I mean, good Lord Penny, what DO they teach you in your waitress training? I know the chef cooks, but what if he forgets? Who is he to lean on in case there's a mishap in the kitch-"

"ALL RIGHT SHELDON, I GET IT." Penny shouts, obviously enraged.

Sheldon cleared his throat, "I told you so." He smiled and promptly earned his spot on the couch once more.

"May I suggest thinking before speaking, Penny?" Amy asked, her voice very matter-of-factly. "I've heard it does wonders!" She attempted a small smile of encouragement.


End file.
